Yea, Olympiakos has some beastly big men. Sofo and Bourousis are tanks.

I hope someone posts some links to the finals game. This is the first time I've ever seen FIBA ball (besides Olympics) and I definitely liked it. The only problem I have with it is the volume of threes they take, you'd think it was a Magic vs Suns game or something

The CSKA and Barcelona game was interesting. I only saw the second half, but I noticed a few differences between FIBA and NBA games. During the 3rd quarter they seemed to shoot a lot of 3's (especially CSKA), is that normal, or just how the game is played? I also noticed the fact that there wasn't a commercial break during the game, thats completely different then sports in America where you have a break every 5ish minutes of game time. I also noticed that there wasn't many foul shots, is it because of the volume of three's, or do they allow more physical play generally in FIBA?

FIBA and NBA basketball are a lot different, it's not just 10 minutes quarters instead of 12 as you probably knew already, the 3 point line is about 3 feet closer to the basket, which also means that there generally are more 3pt attempts in Euroleague games. Therefore, the 3rd quarter you saw of CSKA and Barcalona was probably not an abnormality when it comes to 3pt attempts.

On the commercial breaks, we generally don't have nearly as much of those in Europe as you have in America. In Denmark, no sport events on TV are interrupted with commercials, except at half time.

To answer your last question, from the Euroleague games that i have seen, it seems to me like they do allow more psysical play, not calling as many "soft fouls" as in the NBA

So overhyped Ricky Rubio -still a teenager- leads Barcelona to his first Final appearance in eight years.

Funny.

To to the person wondering about commercials and stuff, let us say that your standard European guy would hardly accept sport events runnning for as long as three hours, nor would they understand constant timeouts and commercials. It's a different culture when it comes to sports.

FIBA and NBA basketball are a lot different, it's not just 10 minutes quarters instead of 12 as you probably knew already, the 3 point line is about 3 feet closer to the basket, which also means that there generally are more 3pt attempts in Euroleague games. Therefore, the 3rd quarter you saw of CSKA and Barcalona was probably not an abnormality when it comes to 3pt attempts.

Ahh that makes sense. During the Olympiakos vs Partizan I noticed a lot of shots that I thought were 2's were counted as three's and I was like , but it makes sense now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stoney

To answer your last question, from the Euroleague games that i have seen, it seems to me like they do allow more psysical play, not calling as many "soft fouls" as in the NBA

I love that aspect of FIBA, I mean the NBA is my favorite American sports league, but they have to many *****-made fouls IMO. I also like how they allow Big men to actually be big men in FIBA, no 3-second violations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strangefruit

To to the person wondering about commercials and stuff, let us say that your standard European guy would hardly accept sport events runnning for as long as three hours, nor would they understand constant timeouts and commercials. It's a different culture when it comes to sports.

Yea, as an American I'm used to the amount of commercials, and I actually kinda like it in a way, it allows you to get out of your seat and get a snack/drink/go to the bathroom without missing any action. With the pace of European sports I can understand why you guys haven't picked up on American football. Football is a play-by-play thing where every action is of utmost importance, while soccer is a free-flowing game where you have long stretches of play without anything paramount to the outcome going on.

So overhyped Ricky Rubio -still a teenager- leads Barcelona to his first Final appearance in eight years.

Funny.

To to the person wondering about commercials and stuff, let us say that your standard European guy would hardly accept sport events runnning for as long as three hours, nor would they understand constant timeouts and commercials. It's a different culture when it comes to sports.

So people from the US actually like TV timeouts and commercials?

It's OK to be mad about it even though it's been stuffed down your throat for so long.
To accept it as part of your sports culture is wrong.

It's OK to be mad about it even though it's been stuffed down your throat for so long.
To accept it as part of your sports culture is wrong.

In the post above yours, Eroticvanilla -who seems to be American- kind of proved my point by saying he actually likes the commercials and stuff. I know this is far from being an acceptable statistical sample, but I get the feeling he's not alone. And I also get the feeling -no statistical samples here either- many Europeans would say "fu(k off" and switch off the TV after four timeouts in the first ten minutes. In the end, it's up to each one of us if we swalow what has been stuffled down your throat for so long. And if someone likes it, well, it's not like they don't have the right or anything.

Still, I also tend to think most people will end up liking what they are fed, no matter how disgusting it is at the beginning. But that's another story.